Qureshi could have handled press conference better: PM

New Delhi (IANS) In his first reaction on the talks between India and Pakistan earlier this month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Thursday that Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi could have "handled" the press conference in a better way.

"I think the way the press conference was handled at the end of the visit by the foreign minister of Pakistan could I think have been avoided, because it detracts from a large element of agreements reached between the two foreign ministers," Manmohan Singh said at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna had travelled to Islamabad for talks with Qureshi on July 15. At the press conference after the talks, Qureshi had equated the remarks of Indian Home Secretary G.K. Pillai on the links of ISI to the Mumbai terror attacks to the provocative speeches of  Jamaat-ud-Dawa supremo Hafez Saeed.

Manmohan Singh added that it was too early to pass judgements on the results of the talks and hoped that Qureshi will accept the Indian invitation to travel to Delhi for further discussion.